Atlantic Sinks to New Low

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Media Co. ["AMC"], publisher of the venerable The Atlantic magazine, has issued an apology and pulled an advertorial from its Web site that embraced the controversial Church of Scientoloty, the  reported.

David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year, read the headline on the Church-sponsored content that appeared on The Atlantic site. The 52-year-old Miscavige is the religious and ecclesiastical leader of the  Church of Scientology, the religion founded by the late pulp fiction writer L.Ron Hubbard.

The Atlantic has since taken down the advertorial and posted the following statement: "We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way."

All well and good, but AMC should conduct a seance so that company executives can apologize to the stellar founders of The Atlantic Monthly, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Atlantic's Prize Pundit Playlist Puzzling

What do Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, and Charles Krauthammer have in common?

True, they are all annoying, but that's not what "TUOL" meant.  These print and/or broadcast pundits, along with The New York Times' columnists Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, and Thomas Friedman, The Washington Post's George Will, and The Atlantic's hometown favorite Andrew Sullivan comprise the top 10 members of "The Atlantic 50"--the nation's most influential commentators who shape national debate, in the lofty estimation of the magazine (http://www.theatlanticwire.com/people/index/).

To arrive at the list, the magazine surveyed 250 Washington "insiders," compiled and analyzed data gauging each commentator's audience, and partnered with Postrank, a company that filters social media data. There's political balance on the list. What's troubling, however, is the expanded view toward what constitutes a journalist/commentator/pundit.  Karl Rove, who occasionally seeks sanctuary in the editorial pages of  The Wall St. Journal when not dodging Grand Jury subpoenas? Glenn Beck, the weepy, self-professed "rodeo clown" who besmirches the good name of rodeo jesters everywhere?

When did the "best and the brightest" get supplanted by the "loudest and the dumbest"?